STTR Phase I: Microwatt-scale GPS Tracking and Timing Platform

该项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是为下一代设备提供更有效的基于gps的位置感知。在过去的20年里，GPS设备已经从砖块大小的接收器缩小到手机、手表和宠物项圈。该项目引入了一种革命性的GPS跟踪方法，将大大降低平均功耗。这将允许GPS跟踪设备使用一个小电池可以持续数周。这将在商业和日常生活的许多方面带来切实的社会效益：紧凑的货运跟踪标签可以确保货物不会丢失；嵌入式商品和资产标签可以追踪被盗物品并提醒当局其位置；徒步旅行者和搜救人员可以依靠一次充电就能持续数周的便携式导航设备；个人健身设备可以在几天或几周内跟踪健身目标，而不是几个小时；执法部门可以使用GPS标签从远处安全地跟踪嫌疑人；手机可以提供始终在线的后台GPS定位，允许应用程序扩展其功能。所有这些优点，以及更多，都可以通过提出的100uw GPS平台实现。这个小型企业技术转移研究（STTR）第一阶段项目建立了全球定位系统（GPS）接收器微芯片的可行性，该芯片以100 uW的平均功率提供连续的实时定位和定时，比目前最先进的技术提高了10倍。所提出的技术利用了射频（RF）和基带硬件设计的最新进展，可以使接收器研究和设计的许多方面受益。当射频单元关闭时，微瓦级晶体振荡器允许在射频系统中更准确地计时。这可以导致更智能的射频协议，在需要发送或接收时精确唤醒。快速启动前端技术也可以使采用时复用频率共享方案的设备受益。该平台可以允许在一个地理区域内的所有设备上同步到微秒精度的时钟。这为无线传感器网络同步和通信协议的研究开辟了新的途径。进一步的研究可以研究一种非GPS同步源，也可以用于室内使用：如果一个本地节点代替广播a，那么所提出的方法就可以工作。这些本地节点本身可以通过外部天线与GPS同步，从而实现无线传感器网络的室内和室外完全同步。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this project is to provide more efficient GPS-based location awareness for next-generation devices. Within the last 20 years, GPS devices have shrunk from brick-sized receivers to cell phones, wrist-watches, and pet collars. This project introduces a transformative approach to GPS tracking that will greatly lower the average power consumption. This will allow for GPS tracking devices that can last weeks on a single small battery. There would be a tangible societal benefit in many aspects of commerce and day-to-day life: compact freight tracking tags can ensure shipments do not get lost; embedded merchandise and asset tags can track stolen items and alert authorities to its location; hikers and search and rescue can rely on portable navigation devices that lasts weeks on a single charge; personal fitness devices can track fitness goals over days and weeks instead of hours; law enforcement can use GPS tags to safely track suspects from a distance; cell-phones can provide always-on background GPS positioning, allowing apps to expand their capabilities. All of these benefits, and more, are realizable with the proposed 100 uW GPS platform.This Small Business Technology Transfer Research (STTR) Phase I project establishes the feasibility of a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver microchip that provides continuous real-time positioning and timing at 100 uW average power - a 10x improvement over the current state-of-the-art. The proposed techniques leverages state-of-the-art advances in radio-frequency (RF) and baseband hardware design that can benefit many aspects of receiver research and design. The microwatt-scale crystal oscillator allows more for accurate timekeeping in an RF system when the RF unit is off. This can lead to smarter RF protocols that wake-up exactly when needed to transmit or receive. The fast start-up front end technology can also benefit devices that employ time-multiplexing frequency sharing schemes. The platform could allow for a clocks that are synchronized to microsecond accuracy across all devices in a geographic area. This opens new avenues of research in wireless sensor network synchronization and communication protocols. Further research could investigate a non-GPS source of synchronization as well for indoor use: the proposed approach would work if a local node were instead broadcasting a. These local nodes could themselves synchronize with GPS through an external antenna, leading to complete indoor and outdoor synchronization of a wireless sensor network.